Introduction
For over 25 years, I have studied exceptional leaders of innovation, individuals from a range of companies and countries, from the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi to Pixar. For hundreds of hours, I have observed leaders who have figured out how to get their colleagues to adopt emerging technologies to innovate and change the game for their customers.
What I have learned from doing this work is – leading AI innovation is not only about having a vision and getting others to follow you to the future; but more importantly, it is about inviting others to co-create the future with you.
This is especially true in effecting change and making innovation more rewarding with AI. While virtually every company is scrambling to adopt new AI practices, the leaders who have made the most progress are those who believe the value of AI will come from using the technology to do work people could never do themselves, and the least value will come from simply swapping machines for people. Their goal is to pursue solutions that augment human ingenuity. And they appreciate that their toughest challenge is about people, not technology. These leaders know that we all need help navigating uncertainty, and they encourage others to try out new ways of working despite real intellectual and emotional demands.
Innovation Insight
Innovation is rarely the feat of a solo genius but rather the fruit of co-creation, which requires collaboration, experimentation, and learning from people with differing expertise and perspectives. Collaboration entails weaving together diversity of thought through constructive conflict to create a marketplace of ideas. Experimentation involves actively testing, pivoting, and refining. And learning happens when individuals and collectives reflect on what they have gleaned from those experiments — and then adapt their course of action.
To generate and scale innovative AI solutions, leaders rely on a repertoire of interrelated roles, what we refer to as the “ABCs” of leadership – Architects, Bridgers, and Catalysts as follows –
Architects know they cannot mandate innovation – but foster the culture and capabilities that enable co-creation. These leaders start by raising their organization’s collective aspirations through a shared sense of purpose and values. By re-shaping the social environment of their organizations, these leaders encourage their colleagues to work through the inevitable conflicts of collaborating with others and the fear of failure. They reward thoughtful risk-taking, treat intelligent failures as learning opportunities, and provide people the tools, data, and perhaps most importantly, the encouragement and permission to try.
Bridgers work at the boundaries of their enterprises, building trust-based partnerships with those outside their walls – with vendors and other groups in the enterprise. No company, no matter how well-resourced, has all the talent and tools needed to make innovation rewarding with the rapidly changing business landscape, new notions of value, rising User expectations, and the unprecedented pace at which technology is advancing. Further, with AI, there is a shortage of individuals who know how to translate and work across technology and business domains. In the way of insight, the technical personnel developing AI solutions typically do not have the domain or contextual intelligence about the nuances and realities of business and what customers want – While business people typically are not aware or do not appreciate the opportunities and risks of implementing new technology.
Catalysts have to mobilize stakeholders across whole industries, sectors, or nations to address major innovation challenges. Catalysts are also essential if we are to establish the global norms and guardrails that keep AI aligned with human and corporate interests. They can provide another perspective, bring in overlooked voices, surface unintended or second-order effects, help mitigate risks with AI and change, indicate how to better share the responsibilities and benefits from these initiatives, etc.
Summary
To achieve success with the creation of meaningful new value, many leaders must be prepared to reinvent themselves – if they hope not only to generate AI innovative solutions but actually turn them into reality by launching and commercializing them with the desired result. To help with this, leaders must come across as being highly insightful, competent and humble (ie: not being the center of attention or thinking they are the smartest person in the room) and get comfortable collaborating, experimenting, and learning with others having different competencies, thinking, aspirations, etc.
With many AI-oriented people recognizing they do not know where AI will take us nor how we are going to get there, the winners of the AI race will be the companies whose leaders accept that their task is about exploring, being open minded, having good look ahead, being intelligent in applying metrics, strong at execution / follow up, being engaging, results oriented, providing rewarding experiences (intellectually and financially), good at recognizing learning and achievement, sharing credit, etc. Further, leaders must enable their colleagues to have the courage and curiosity of explorers (like those who crossed the uncharted oceans without clarity about their destination centuries ago). Fortunately, since we now have access to more sophisticated tools than the ancient seafarers, we should be able to make more intelligent decisions as well as be better at managing the risks associated with change. These attributes are especially important for AI to make a positive difference in business and society. And enable people at many levels of an organization to be willing and able to join the journey and contribute to achieving positive outcomes.
Sept 14, 2026 by CAIL / Linda A. Hill is a professor at Harvard Business School and faculty chair of the Leadership Initiative.
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